Where librarians and the internet meet: internet searching, Social Media tools, search engines and their development. These are my personal views.

November 30, 2015

If you're tired of struggling with Facebook, there's plenty of ways in which you can make the process much easier and more enjoyable. So if you want to find out how to search more effectively, block those annoying requests, retain more of your privacy and so on, you might want to take a look at my Slideshare presentation.

November 23, 2015

In the wake of the awful events in Paris there is a renewed interest in trying to attack internet resources that encrypt our conversations. Despite what organisations such as #CILIP would try and have you believe there's still a great appetite to try and stop encryption. In the United States John McCain is keen to introduce legislation that would require companies to provide the government with access to encryption. It's worth saying time and time again that it's technically impossible to provide a back door to encryption that can be used by security services which can't be broken into by crooks.

Meanwhile back in the UK Boris Johnson is weighing in on the debate. He wants the government to fast track the Investigatory Powers Bill (which isn't going to give people much time to debate and consider the consequences). He also said “I have less and less sympathy with those who oppose the new surveillance powers that the government would like to give the security services.” Basically then, people who support freedom and liberty are being tarred with the same brush as the terrorists who want to destroy it. Laughably, he was also quoted as saying "I would like a better understanding of how so many operatives were able to conspire, and attack multiple locations, without some of their electronic chatter reaching the ears of the police.” He's therefore quite happy to pontificate about the subject without knowing anything at all about it.

We need to ensure that we keep a close eye on what the government is trying to do, and as information professionals I believe that we have a moral and ethical duty to keep raising the subject as often as necessary.

The board games group of which I am a member held a nice little event at Billericay Library on Saturday, to coincide with the aforementioned Day. We were given the use of four tables, and we had Castle Panic, Settlers of Catan, Ticket to Ride and Tsuru set up for people to play. The event lasted from 10am - 2pm. It was well attended - as you can see, there were mainly children involved (since they don't come with either a manual or a rulebook I stayed well away from them), but some adults did turn up as well. It was a really nice event, and no-one seemed to mind the children having a slightly noisy time of it!

I spent a lot of time talking to the librarian, Graham. Absolutely fantastic librarian, and I really enjoyed our chat. He explained that he was very keen to see the library being used far more by the local community - we already have a pop-up cinema after hours which shows a variety of films for family audiences, as well as evening 15+ rated films for the adults. The library also runs a very successful yoga class after closing time as well. Graham was open to the idea of having a games morning for children on Saturdays as well. I absolutely loved his enthusiasm - I should say that even though it was his day off he came in with his daughter to play and take part. While he was there he was greeted by library users as though he was an old friend. Graham is really keen to see the library as a focal point in the community, and his work was a great example of “Bad Libraries build collections. Good libraries build services. Great libraries build Communities”

Great day, great initiative, all made possible by a welcoming, encouraging and enthusiastic librarian. :)

November 20, 2015

I don't often write personal stuff in this blog, but it's a Friday and quite frankly, we could all do with a break.

It was the evening that my toilet exploded…

I should start by explaining that I’m fortunate enough to have both an upstairs and a downstairs loo. The downstairs one is the really small type with room for the loo, a basin and that’s just about it.

At about 10.45 last night I flushed the loo, and there was what can only be described as a minor explosion. The lid of the cistern flew up into the air, hitting me on the way down and simultaneously there was a loud bang. A fountain of water was shooting straight up into the air, powerful enough to hit the ceiling and cascade down on top of me and the walls of the loo itself. Bear in mind that due to the time of night and the season of the year, this water was cold. Really cold enough to take my breath away, because I was being showered in it at some considerable force.

It’s worth pointing out that I’d only recently put one of those little deodorising blocks into the cistern (I hadn’t screwed the cistern lid back down afterwards, which explains why it was able to be pushed off into the air) and for some strange reason I’d got pink ones. Not only was the water shooting straight up into the air, it was also filling the cistern as well, with frothing pinky red water. I felt as though I was in the Exorcist or something similar. It didn’t get any easier when the water filled up the cistern and started to overflow… pink frothing angry water pouring down over the loo and onto the floor. The sheer amount of water was more than the overflow could handle.

I couldn’t see what was happening because not only was I soaked head to foot in freezing cold water, but my glasses were covered in water as well, so I couldn’t see out of them. I managed to take them off and could see the enormity of the problem. I have a new type of ballcock in the loo – it’s not the old fashioned long armed one with a big ball on the end, it’s a much smaller affair, with a little plastic widget that tilts back and forth to let the water flow into the cistern or, when full, close off the valve. This widget had for some reason come off, with the result that the water from the mains was coming directly into the cistern entirely unimpeded and as it was downstairs, it was coming out at a very high pressure.

I put my thumb over the open hole, hoping to at least stop a situation that was reminiscent of the fountains at Trafalgar Square, but the water was so powerful that my thumb simply wasn’t up to the job. What I did manage to achieve however was a redirection of the water – instead of going straight up into the air it was now being directed in a horizontal manner, soaking me through even more, to say nothing of my surroundings. Obviously I don’t have the abilities of the little Dutch chap who put his finger into the dyke, and quite frankly if I wasn’t able to stop my own minor flood I have severe doubts as to the veracity of that little tale, let me tell you.

I couldn’t see the little plastic widget anywhere, which wasn’t that surprising. I am shortsighted, and being drenched in cold water does not encourage one to get on hands and knees to try and find the damn thing. I did consider going into the kitchen to get at the stopcock but I was concerned that if I did that I would be washed out of the house on a flood of water before I was able to get to it. Luckily however, inspiration struck and I plunged my hand into the frothing pinky liquid and scrabbled around, while the thumb of my other hand was still employed futilely redirecting the water around like an insane gardening sprinkler system.

I found the widget at last and attempted to put it back on the apparatus. Keep in mind that I’d never really looked that closely at it, so had no idea which way it went on, or if it was the right way up. You know how you feel when you try and open a double door by pushing, then pulling, then trying the other door and you eventually get it right on the last go? It was like that. I tried to put the widget from hell onto the gusher only to see it shooting up to the ceiling and back down again. I managed to see where it had gone and bent down and retrieved it, getting a lovely cold soaking on my back for my trouble. I tried again, and once more redirected cold water at waist height around the room. Third time is a charm so they say, and this once, they were right. I managed to ram the widget home, the water stopped immediately and the frothing pink overflow of the devil’s liquid slowly dripped to a halt.

I was standing in the loo in silence, apart from the drip, drip drip of water from the ceiling. Pink water was dripping down the walls and I must have looked like some insane serial killer who was taking a Master’s degree in advanced butchery because I too was dripping pink water everywhere. I squished out of the room, grabbed a towel that was drying on the clothes horse and went back in to mop up. Quite frankly it was like taking a sponge to a party on the Titanic, but at this point I could not bring myself to care. I pulled off my sodden freezing cold clothes and shakily made my way back into the living room. My faithful hound had clearly decided he wanted no part of the evening’s debacle and simply raised his head and looked at me as if to say ‘You had one job! Just one job!’

Things are quiet at the moment, and the monster is contained. However, I think I shall shortly be having a discussion with a local plumber….

Addendum... it didn't help that when I looked at my email this morning, this was one of the very first headers that I saw.....

November 12, 2015

In the wake of the realization that the Prime Minister has no idea what's happening in his own back yard, let alone the rest of the country, CILIP has written to him to develop publicly funded libraries. It's a good time to really push home the message that Cameron doesn't want to hear, which is that the library service is in extreme danger.

However, having read the statement, I have to say that I think it's not going to have the desired effect, not by a long way. You can read the entire thing yourself by following the previous link, but I'll pull out some of the statements in order to examine them in a little more detail. Nick Poole (who I have a huge amount of respect for) says:

"The impact of reductions in centrally-distributed funds to Local Government has already been profound for the Nation’s publicly-funded libraries and is likely to become critical after the Budget statement on the 25th November."

Passive, passive, passive. It WILL become even more critical than it already is. We are already in a situation where hollowed out services give the impression that library services are managing when in actual fact they are being destroyed from the inside out. The Prime Minister needs to understand that a volunteer run library is not a library. He further needs to understand that an attack on a library is a direct attack on the people within the community - the children who need to get their homework done in the library because they don't have one at school - the library as a safe place for people without any where else - the refugees learning English, the unemployed, the people without computer access at home who rely on a library service to give them a window into the world. The Prime Minister needs to be reminded of Birmingham's Central Library, and how that is being damaged so soon after it's opening. The Prime Minister isn't interested 'profound' or 'likely' - he works on extremes. We need to make it crystal clear that under his government(s) the library service is being destroyed.

We continue:

"Our best estimates show that as many as 200 public libraries have closed since 2008 and many hundreds more are being forced to make short-term decisions to transition into community-led models the sustainability of which remains an open question without appropriate planning or support."

I'm sorry, but estimates don't mean much. Another weak statement. "200 and more public libraries have closed since 2008." Stronger, and more definite. Saying 'our best estimates' simply illustrates that CILIP doesn't actually KNOW how many libraries have closed. The PM is going to look at that and really wonder if we have any handle on what is happening at all. The phrase 'which remains an open question' again illustrates that we don't KNOW what's going to happen with volunteer, community led models. I'm sorry, but we do know exactly what's going to happen, because we've seen it happening time and time again. The libraries fail. Moving into 'community led models' doesn't save libraries, it merely delays their closure. This has to be spelled out in far stronger, more impassioned language.

Further on we go:

"1000’s of qualified librarians have either lost their jobs or find themselves at risk of redundancy – a permanent loss of professional skills that will do profound and lasting damage to Britain’s future as a globally-competitive Knowledge Economy."

How many thousands? Rough estimates will not interest the Prime Minister. If we don't know, and I fully accept that it's virtually impossible to, we need a better figure and a stronger approach. The PM doesn't care about risks of redundancy - if he did he would have done something about it in other areas. No, no, no. We need to illustrate what happens when we lose librarians. 'The loss of skilled information professionals has already damaged library services and the communities they serve. If Britain is to compete in a future globally competitive Knowledge Economy we need more well trained professionals who can teach the general population, can assist local businesses make better and more informed choices, provide children with more access to the digital world. Librarians can help propel us forward, not only in a cultural sense, but in a very real economic sense. More professionals lead to a better, more powerful economy, while a reduction in their numbers leaves the entire country the weaker for it.'

More:

"I need hardly point out that the likely outcome of further significant savings passed on to Local Government in the Chancellor’s Autumn Budget will trigger an avalanche of short-term decisions and further redundancies and is likely to put the Public Library Network itself – long the beating heart of our communities, a foundation of Britain’s education, equality and social mobility and a central pillar of our economic future – at risk."

You do have to point it out, and do so strongly. Lose concepts like 'likely outcomes'. I'm not interested in likely - and neither is the PM. We are the professionals, CILIP is the body, and it needs to make it a damn sight clearer than likely. Tell it like it is CILIP! 'We will see further, and increasingly damaging cuts that cannot be reversed. Our education system has already been damaged by library closures, the equality and social mobility of our citizens is being reduced, and our local businesses are struggling to compete.'

More:

"While we recognise the Government’s aim to reduce public expenditure, it is essential to recognise that library services are often one of the smallest expenditure items in Council budgets but that they unlock a tremendous range of benefits including improved literacy and attainment, improved health and wellbeing, digital literacy and employability."

This is great, but if we're reminding the government about what it needs to do, let's make the point that Ed Vaizey isn't doing any of it. How about making it clear that he has done nothing to fight library closures, and moreover, he's not talking to CILIP. We all know *why* he isn't, but that's beside the point. The PM needs to know that decisions are being taken without proper consultation with the appropriate professional bodies.

Further:

"...it is all too possible that the legacy of your Government may be a network of hollowed-out services, delivering only the most basic of library functions and failing to meet the reasonable expectations of the public."

Sorry CILIP - 'all too possible'? Get rid of that for starters. The legacy of the government will be hollowed out services, damaged communities, closed libraries that will never, ever open again, increased illiteracy and more citizens for whom a computer is a closed magical black box.

Nick then goes on to talk about some good stuff about working together to promote libraries, all of which is good stuff. However, there's another line here that just doesn't work:

"We urge you to work with the Chancellor, the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport and the Local Government Association to recognise the importance of libraries, to protect them as far as possible in the forthcoming budget"

That's the language of the defeated. Anything that's protected as far as possible isn't protected at all. Yes, I know that there are plenty of other services that are being wrecked, and that's appalling. However, we need to protect our own at this point. We need to state, in far, far stronger terms that not only do libraries need complete protection, but in order to create more jobs, better educated citizens, increased literacy (both written and digital), more confident communities, better informed local businesses we need to expand the library service. By starting with the assumption that we're going to be cut back it's inevitable that we will be.

I understand that the language being used in the letter has to be tempered. However, I can also tell you that if Cameron actually reads what Nick has written I'd be astonished. It's going to get flung across to Vaizey who will then ignore it, or continue with the usual platitudes. We need strong, vibrant powerful language for everyone else. The letter needs to be in the Bookseller, professional press, local newspapers and so on. We need to demonstrate that we care about the library service, the information professionals and our communities. We need to be strident in pointing out that better library services lead to better communities, and every penny we put into a library service pays us back time and time again. We should not be ashamed or embarrassed of our passion. We should not stand politely at the door of Number 10 hoping to be noticed by one of the PM's aides. We need to be there hammering on the door, demanding to be let it. If we don't show the passion, if we don't shout louder and louder, if we don't make it clear to our communities that we are fighting for them then we deserve to lose everything we have.

CILIP - you need to do more. You need to be passionate. You need to be vocal. You need to be seen to be standing up - if not for the Prime Minister, but for your members, their library services, and most of all, for their communities.

November 10, 2015

We are seeing a return of the Investigatory Powers Bill this Autumn; that which was previously named the 'Snoopers Charter'. At first glance it doesn't appear to be as dangerous or as far reaching as the previous iteration, so let's start by looking at what the Government wants to be able to do first.

Web and phone companies will be required to store records of the websites visited by all of us for 12 months, and these records will be available for access by the police 'security services' and other 'public bodies'.

For the first time ever the security services and police will, be law, be able to hack into and bug both computers and phones. There is a new legal obligation on companies to assist in this, and to bypass encryption.

There will be locks on this, with a panel of 7 judicial commissioners who can have the power of veto, but there are exemptions in 'urgent cases'. In the case of journalists, MPs, doctors, lawyers and so the protections to be used for privileged information have to be clearly stated when the minister approves the warrant.

Internet and telephone companies will have to maintain 'permanent capabilities' to intercept and keep the personal data flowing through their systems. They will also have to assist the security services and the police in the interests of national security.

The Home Secretary wants us to be very relaxed about this new and improved version of the Bill. “Try to think of the new powers as just an extended itemised phone bill,” she said. Unfortunately, that's not particularly reassuring, since you can learn a lot from even very basic information. Although the security services will have to make an extra request for indepth information, they can work out a great deal about you by simply looking at the URLs you visit. For example, if I visit my doctors surgery online after having viewed a page about HIV testing, it doesn't take a genius to work out what I'm going to be talking about. After all, if the information that the government was going to collect was so innocuous, why would they want to collect it in the first place?

During PMQs prior to the announcement of the Bill the Prime Minister said it was "vital" that communications data could be used to help catch "rapists, child abductors" and other criminals. Well now, that's rather confusing. If it's just a listing of sites that someone has visited, I'm not really sure how that helps much. Of course, if someone is stupid enough to go to childabuse.com then they deserve what they get.

May has said that the new version of the bill is a "significant departure from the proposals from the past". However, apart from the lock system, I don't really see that. Most particularly, we still have a situation in which the use of personal communication tools, such as WhatsApp and SnapChat could be banned. If companies have to provide a way to break the encryption just for the UK - are they really going to do that? And even if they do, what difference does it make when you can simply download another version from another country?

You can read more about this by taking a look at my previous post on this subject, Why we must fight the snoopers charter earlier this year. All of the points that I made then are still as valid in the light of this new version of the bill as they were then.

Once again what the legislation demonstrates is that the government is clueless when it comes to technology. If people use TOR - a browser that encrypts what they are doing, a browsing history is useless. If people use a VPN - a virtual personal network - they can get around being tracked. If they go to the library and use the computers there, they can get around being tracked.

But this is where it gets interesting for us. Are we, as librarians in libraries, going to have to keep an eye on what all of our members are doing - which machines they are using, when they use them, and for how long? Will this information need to be kept and made available upon request? What is our role in keeping our users safe and secure? What's going to happen if a librarian refuses any requests? We also have to consider that - if people are worried about being tracked - to what extent are they going to self censor what they do? To what extent does even the possibility of being tracked do to our own personal liberties? Do we need to make it clear to users that their computer use is being stored?

Of course - the entire insanity about this situation is that it's going to do NOTHING to keep us safe, to catch child abusers, rapists or terrorists. They are far more canny than the government would have us believe, and they will use systems to hide what they are doing, they'll be visiting dark web sites, and chatting using encryption services that don't have backdoors into them. This is nothing more than another attempt by the government to keep a watch on its citizens, and it takes us one step closer to the likes of Russia and China.

So what can we do? I'd really like to see CILIP come out with a very strongly worded statement against this bill, and I think that each of us needs to raise the subject whenever possible, and make it clear that we're facing a far more insidious attack on our freedom than the Prime Minister and the Home Secretary would like us to believe.